Shannon Valley Group, the civil engineering company owned by Mick English, has bought Ireland’s first 552hp Fendt 1052. The 14t tractor was purchased from Farmworks Machinery, a Dublin-based dealer that described the 1052 as the largest Fendt in the country.
The machine is powered by a 12.4L six-cylinder MAN engine that produces 2,650Nm of torque. English said its power was a major reason for choosing the 1052 after he first saw the model at Agritechnica. The group already runs a 1050 bought three years ago, which has accumulated 4,000 to 5,000 hours, and English said the company had been pleased with it before moving to the newer model.
Heavy attachments behind the purchase
Shannon Valley Group has had Fendt tractors for seven or eight years. English summarised the loyalty simply: “a Fendt is a Fendt.” The new 1052 is to work with a 3.5t front weight and a 9t hybrid stone-crushing and soil-stabilisation machine mounted on the rear.
English said he takes guidance from the manufacturers of those attachments when specifying tractors. He said their research led them to recommend Fendt regardless of which supplier he consulted, describing the brand as the Rolls-Royce of tractors and stressing that the comparison came from the equipment makers rather than from him.
The owner rejected the idea that a tractor of this size might be bought mainly for appearance. In his description, the machine is fully loaded when working in the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays, and the whole tractor is pulled down by the effort. More power, he said, makes the work easier on the tractor.
From Massey 165 to a 552hp machine
English comes from Co. Leitrim and has 35 years of earthmoving experience. His family’s tractor history began with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165 after his father started in 1976; the machines had no cab. He said that in 1970s Leitrim, a Massey 165 was the equivalent of today’s Fendt 1052.
His father’s 165 was a mark one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine. English recalled climbing onto it as a three-year-old when it arrived in the yard and jumping off again in tears when the throttle was opened because of the noise. The family still has those tractors.
Buying new machines has been part of the business’s history. English said his father started the company in London in 1966, where he bought new JCB 3C diggers, and moved the operation back to Leitrim in 1970 with the JCBs and other equipment. He described his father as one of the first people in Ireland to have JCB machines.
Shannon Valley Group now has more than 200 diggers. Its fleet includes a 75t Hitachi Zaxis 690-7 bought in 2020, which at the time was the first of its kind sold in Europe. English said he will probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year.